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23 Oct 2025

Mayo’s Major Emergency Plan considered for Storm Christine

Belmullet are councillors concerned about funding for storm damage

Cllr Michéal McNamara felt that trained personnel should have been on site at places like Dooagh Beach, pictured here, on the morning after the New Year storms.
‘LIVES COULD HAVE BEEN LOST’
?Cllr Michéal McNamara felt that trained personnel should have been on site at places like Dooagh Beach, pictured here, on the morning after the New Year storms.?Pic courtesy of Roisin Lavelle

Mayo’s Major Emergency Plan considered for Storm Christine


Belmullet
Áine Ryan

MAYO County Council has confirmed it ‘considered activating its Major Emergency Plan’ on the morning of January 3 after Storm Christine battered the west coast, leaving a trail of destruction. Speaking at last week’s Belmullet Electoral Area’s committee meeting, Mr Martin Keating, a Director of Services, said: “I did consider activating the Major Emergency Plan on the morning of January 3 but there had to be an imminent emergency and danger to lives. At that stage though the damage was already done. There was a coordinated response between the Fire Services, the Gardaí and Mayo County Council,” Mr Keating said.
He was responding to a question by Achill Fianna FΡil Cllr MicheΡl McNamara who had asked earlier if there was ‘consideration of mobilising the emergency plan for the county’.
“It seemed to me when standing in Dooagh or Dooega that there should have been trained personnel available because lives could have been lost on that morning.”
During a debate on funding for the repair work, Mr Keating argued that there was ‘need for political support to get the funding released as soon as possible’. He confirmed that applications, which were being updated as more information about damage was provided, were sent, or in the process of being sent, to various government departments and bodies. He noted that the coastline was one of Mayo’s most significant assets and with the upcoming launch of the Wild Atlantic Way needed to be restored as quickly as possible.  He confirmed that the local authority’s remit was for public infrastructure and there were other forums to address other fall-outs from the destruction.
Sinn Féin’s Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh asked that a presentation of the Major Emergency Plan be scheduled for an upcoming meeting. She argued that the claimed-for €4.5 million in EU funding was not enough.
“Mayo’s coastline is longer than any of the other counties affected by the storm and that figure alone could be spent on the Mullet peninsula, never mind the wider area,” Cllr Conway-Walsh said.
Agreeing, Independent Cllr Michael Holmes said he ‘didn’t believe the €4.5 million was adequate at all’. He welcomed the fact that two of the region’s three MEPs had already committed to attending a meeting in Tiernaur, near Mulranny, in February.

Farmer fall-out
“I was talking to a farmer last night who is so depressed about the impact of the storms he is going to sell all his stock…. I was also talking to a fisherman last night who lost €20,000 of gear, he hasn’t a clue where it’s gone,” Cllr Holmes said.
Citing the devastation to farmlands, some of which, he believed to be not repairable, he strongly challenged Minister Hogan’s figure of €65 million, which has been applied for through EU funding, noting that ‘it was obviously just for infrastructural damage’.
“I thought some of these people who were ringing me were exaggerating but when I went out and met them, I found they were underestimating the damage,” Cllr Holmes added.
Speaking about the thousands of tonnes of debris thrown up by the ocean onto farmlands, Cllr Gerry Coyle proposed that National Parks and Wildlife personnel be brought to a meeting.
Agreeing, Cllr Holmes said it was time to bring them into the debate since farmers had been the custodians of these lands for hundreds of years.
Political action
“People criticise Bertie Ahern but if this flooding had happened in Drumcondra it would have been resolved by now. I don’t think the Taoiseach or Minister Michael Ring have even visited the areas,” Cllr McNamara said.
Interjecting, Cllr Gerry Coyle (Fine Gael) said he had indeed brought Minister Ring to several areas devastated by the storm.

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